Anne Wojcicki, with her hand held devices, on Wednesday Mar. 3, 2011, in Mountain View, Ca., is the co-founder of "23andme" and also is a board member of the National Day of Unplugging from Technology. An upcoming event will encourage people to disconnect from their social networks and smart phones and engage with the world and people directly around them.

Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle

Anne Wojcicki, with her hand held devices, on Wednesday Mar. 3,...

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Anne Wojcicki, holding her hand held devices, on Wednesday Mar. 3, 2011, in Mountain View, Ca., is the co-founder of "23andme" and also is a board member of the National Day of Unplugging from Technology. An upcoming event will encourage people to disconnect from their social networks and smart phones and engage with the world and people directly around them.

Google Inc. suffered a critical communications disruption that lasted around 24 hours late last month: On the evening of Feb. 25, co-founder Sergey Brin switched off his cell phone.

Unlike the recent Gmail snafu, this particular downtime was planned. Brin's wife, 23andme Inc. co-founder Anne Wojcicki, was hosting a dinner at Hidden Villa in Los Altos, in advance of the National Day of Unplugging, during which the hyper-connected are encouraged to take a day off from technology.

Wojcicki is a board member of a Jewish nonprofit that developed the annual occasion, which begins at sundown tonight and ends sundown Saturday. She held the gathering in advance to encourage people to talk about the role of technology in their lives and take a practice run at unplugging.

"People here are so connected and they're really living their lives online," she said. "I thought it'd be a good idea to see if you can disconnect for the full 24 hours."

Reboot, a New York group focused on updating Jewish traditions to make them more relevant to modern life, created the National Day of Unplugging last year to encourage people to reconnect with the real world.

Though people of all backgrounds are encouraged to participate, the concept was inspired by the Sabbath in Jewish tradition, a weekly day of rest. Reboot devised a "Sabbath Manifesto" that included 10 goals for the day, such as: avoid technology, connect with loved ones, get outside and drink wine. Participants can draw that technology line wherever they please, from light switches to cars to televisions.

The concern is that our collective technological obsession has our minds bouncing so rapidly (eyes back on the page, reader, you can check your Twitter feed later!) that we aren't focusing on anything or anyone for any real length of time. Consider how increasingly rare it is to get through a conversation or a meal without someone glancing at their phone.

"We're not anti-technology," said Tanya Schevitz, a spokeswoman for the group. "But it's really that people need a break. If people pause, they can see how much it has impacted them."

It's not just that we ignore our family or friends (or our beloved newspapers) when we grow too fond of our devices. Research suggests that our frenetic multitasking can affect our memory and performance in negative ways, and possibly in lasting ones, said Adam Gazzaley, director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at UCSF.

Some scientists are concerned people are growing addicted to the constant stimulation, craving the tiny hit of gratification that comes with every new e-mail, retweet or Facebook friend.

It's difficult to measure how many people participated in the unplugging last year or how many will this weekend, but nearly 130,000 people have viewed Reboot's posts on Facebook in the last month, Schevitz said.

You read that right. The group is using social-networking tools to encourage people to log off social networks. It also developed a "Sabbath Manifesto" smart phone app that reminds people when to shut off their devices, and updates their Facebook and Twitter accounts with a notice that they're signing off.

Lots of apps allow users to "check in" to locations, but - sort of like the Hotel California - few allow you to leave, said Courtney Holt, the president of MySpace Music and Reboot board member, who proposed the app.

"This is a gentle and subtle reminder that it's OK to check out," he said.

If using technology to discourage the use of technology seems a little ironic, hearing names like Wojcicki and Brin take up the cause may strike some as almost unfathomable.

It would be difficult to find a couple more invested in the spiraling use of computers and the Internet. Helping to organize the information on the Web made Brin a billionaire many times over. And Wojcicki's 23andme allows people to learn about their genetic makeup using DNA analysis and online tools.

But Wojcicki said she sometimes carries four cell phones, sleeps with a BlackBerry on her pillow and finds herself instant messaging people sitting next to her. The benefits of technology are clear, she said, but it's also obvious that people are becoming overly reliant.

She and Brin both plan to take part in the unplugging beginning tonight, and Wojcicki hopes to institute the tradition weekly around the household.

"It's really about achieving balance and spending some time where you're really just connected with the environment and the people around you," she said.